Rob Holding has had successful surgery on his left knee as the defender begins his long road back to fitness after rupturing his cruciate ligament.

Holding suffered the injury during the first half of the 2-2 draw at Manchester United and will now be out for the remainder of the season.

Arsenal have put a time frame on the defender's return of between six and nine months and confirmed that Holding had successful anterior cruciate ligament repair surgery on Thursday.

The injury to Holding came at a time when the centre-back was in superb form and Laurent Koscielny - who has just returned from his own extended injury lay-off - has offered words of support for his teammate.

“It’s a difficult period for him but he needs to be strong, and to stay strong,” said Koscielny.

“I know he’s a defender so he likes to fight, and the most important thing is to be with him, to help him.

“We know during rehab you have some good moments and some bad moments, because you don’t always progress as you wanted. But he knows we are all here at Arsenal for him, we are his family as well.

"I think it’s a very big match like every match in the Premier League," said Arsenal's head coach. "Southampton have some very good players and a new coach who has good experience and good performances in Germany.

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"On Sunday I think they are going to push against us a lot. We need to prepare very well for the match with a very big personality because we want to be consistent.

"Every challenge is to continue doing that and Sunday is a big challenge and a big match, and also we are looking forward to continuing our improvement and good moment knowing that it’s difficult.

"Every match gives us a struggle in terms of work and continuing in our way. Against Southampton on Sunday, it’s about preparing for a different match. We need to create a stronger identity and our personality is getting better in each game. We are playing games our way."